It’s time to start a brand new wave of Marvel Legends and I had several to choose from in my backlog. In the interest of being current for once, I’ve decided to skip ahead to the X-Men Wave featuring the Juggernaut Build-A-Figure. Aw, who am I kidding? Being current has nothing to do with it. I just couldn’t wait to start opening these! Looks like the Civil War Giant Man Wave will have to wait, and who knows when I’ll get to look at that Rhino Wave. Ah, X-Men… but where to begin? Considering this is perhaps the finest wave of Legends to date, there was no wrong answer. In the end, I decided to start with Wolverine because he’s the best at what he does!

While the Marvel Legends packaging is always attractive and collector friendly, I’ve never really been motivated to keep any of it until now. A combination of spiffy matching yellow coordination and some kick ass character art on the side panels make these look like something special. Together, these just don’t feel like a normal wave of Legends. With a never-ending flood of Iron Mans, Captain Americas, and Spider-Mans, it’s crazy to think that this is only the second time we’ve seen Logan in Legends since it’s return. And the previous release was part of that now impossible to find Jubilee Wave.

Wolverine comes in his oh-so-classic brown suit, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! I should also point out straightaway how relieved I am that Hasbro didn’t recycle the Dark Wolverine body from a while back. This one suits Logan well, features the lovely pointed flares on the tops of his boots, a solid yellow and brown painted deco, and classic wide red belt. When it comes to the comics, this is The Wolverine that scratches my itch. The only disappointing thing here is that he doesn’t have any claws!

Just kidding! Of course, you get a pair of regular fists and some snikt hands. Did we even need the fists? I can see maybe mixing them up at some point with one fist and one clawed hand held up, but even that’s stretching it. Wolvy needs his claws and while I love to have options, I doubt the fists are going to get much use, other than for fist-bumping Spider-Man. The claws are especially nice and not overly bendy or prone to warping. Although since many of my Legends figures get cycled into Totes now and again, I’m thinking I’ll put the fists on him for that so the claws don’t get all bent up or broken during Logan’s down time.

The portrait here is fairly solid. I think the mask portion looks great, especially the expressive eyes. He truly looks like he’s sick of your shit, bub. The unmasked part of the face is a little on the soft side. It reminds me a bit of some of the softer Captain America sculpts. Not bad, but I think that part could have been better. Oh, I suppose I could complain that there isn’t an unmasked portrait. After all, the Jubilee Wave came with one, but then that figure goes for well over $100 now! In fairness, I think Hasbro could have tossed it in here, but I’m not going to hold that against what is otherwise a fantastic classical figure of a character that was long overdue for an appointment with my Marvel shelf.

The articulation here is top notch. You get all the regular points that we’re used to seeing in Legends. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs and again down int he boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. The torso features a swivel at the waist and an ab-crunch hinge. The neck has both a ball joint and a hinge. The big addition are those wonderful shoulder crunches that we see crop up from time to time and they make a big difference! I’ll note that the upper elbow hinge on my figure’s right arm has a bit of a pull to it where the pin connects. It’s not too bad, but I might still pick up a replacement.

This figure hits the spot on every conceivable level. It was well past time we got Logan in the Legends line again (and with actual distribution this time!) especially since it seems like a handful of the A-list heroes have been getting more than their share of figures. Given the current state of The X-Men over at Marvel, it’s kind of odd to see this wave hit now, but you won’t hear me complaining about it.  This release is as simple and classic as it gets and I have a feeling he’s a pretty good indicator of the figures I’ll be opening over the next bunch of weeks!